Wild Ginger is my favorite restaurant in Seattle. Yes, there was a time I liked it more, but I'm not sure if that was because the food was better or if my palate has become more refined. Eat enough meals at Nobu and Lupa, and you're bound to set a higher standard for your food.
Since returning to Seattle, I've eaten at Wild Ginger three times, with three different sets of visitors. All three meals scored big points with my friends, two visiting from NY and one from LA.
At Wild Ginger, you order family-style, so it's easy to try many different dishes. On this night we had two appetizers, followed by four main dishes and dessert.
We started with an order of chicken potstickers. I like them because they're simple. Nothing fancy, just a nice tasting dumpling. Our other appetizer is one of the house specialties, the Siam Lettuce Cup. It's a mixture of fish, peanuts, basil, lime and tamarind which you then wrap in a piece of butter lettuce. It's delicious. Over the years, this dish has evolved. By the way, it kicks the crap out of those PF Chang's Lettuce Cups, so don't be afraid to try it if the PF Chang's version has tainted you!
We had a nice mix of dishes for our main meal. I wasn't doing the ordering, so we actually ended up with a vegetable on the table. I know, crazy, right? The Sichuan Green Beans are deep fried, then stir fried in a hot, spicy oil. In other words, this might be the least healthy vegetable dish ever served. But, damn it's good.
For seafood we ordered the Black Pepper Scallops. This is another simple dish. The sea scallops are seared in soy sauce and black pepper. Of the night's dishes, this seemed to the the favorite of the out-of-towners. For having three ingredients, it's very flavorful.
Next up was the Seven Flavor Beef. The seven flavors are: lemongrass, peanuts, hoison, chilies, basil, garlic and ginger rubbed into flank steak. The beef is then quickly dry fried. While the others seemed to prefer the scallops, this one was my favorite. Let's face it, I like beef. But there's so much flavor here, I can't help but love this dish. Overall, t's become my favorite at Wild Ginger.
Finally, we had the other specialty of the house, the Wild Ginger Fragrant Duck. The duck, which is so well prepared, you really don't the accoutrements, is somehow cooked where the flavor and moistness of the duck is there, yet without the normal greasiness. As for those accoutrements, you're supposed to wrap the duck in a lovely, sweet steamed bun, then top with cilantro and a plum sauce. For me, I love the buns and the duck and I just skip the other stuff.
For dessert, we had a strawberry rhubarb tart topped with vanilla ice cream. The rhubarb was very tart, to the point if I didn't swallow it down with the ice cream, it was almost painful. The tart part was good, though. I don't think the dessert stacked up to the meal. I was supposed to quote my friend here, but I can't remember what she said.
Overall, a fine meal. I still love Wild Ginger. I probably always will. The scary thing? They're opening a Wild Ginger in the lobby of the office building we just moved into. Ugh. I can't imagine how much time and money I'm going to spend there!
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